*Update* 6-way nForce2 Roundup Online

[caboob]

in a nutshell, like the nforce1 before, the AGP and PCI busses have their own clock generators so they are not tied to the FSB clock generator as they traditionally have been.

 

[Killrose]

So if the AMD Barton Core is released as a 400MHz DDR part, this series of Nforce2 boards are'nt going to cut it then? Is there at least confirmation of a 333MHz DDR Barton Core? Or perhaps some bios tweaking yet to be done to bring us into the realm of a stable 400MHz DDR with this current crop of Nforce2.

Or do we wait till the Nforce2A to get there, lol.

 

[Parja]

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Well if you weren't such an utter moron and actually read - straight from the review.

"For this question we headed over to ASUS and asked them what was going on. ASUS's response was simply that they have a PCI bus lock set at 33MHz and that you have nothing to worry about as far as running your devices out of specification while performing FSB overclocking."

So I'm the utter moron for blindly believing a statement from some nimrod marketing puke at ASUS when the evidence clearly shows that the board is not capable of hitting anything close to 200MHz. Uhh yeah, ok.

Also, Evan noted in the review that Abit and Chaintech both supposedly have PCI locks on their boards.

"We asked ABIT why the AGP lock was included in the NF7-S BIOS but not the PCI lock, and we were basically told that the only reason you don't see a PCI lock in the BIOS is because ABIT doesn't want users fooling around with PCI frequency, especially since it offers virtually no performance gain. We don't have any way of independently verifying ABIT's PCI lock claim ourselves, so take this piece of information as you will."

"Even though there's definitely an AGP lock in the 7NJS BIOS, there isn't any visible PCI lock. According to Chaintech though, the 7NJS does indeed lock the PCI bus at 33MHz, there just isn't an option in the BIOS to tinker with it. We have no way of independently verifying this ourselves, so take it for what it's worth."

So, ya know, before you call someone a moron, maybe you should prove your own intelligence by thinking a little bit before you post.

 

[Soulkeeper]

abit can kiss my ass
it seems they drift farther and farther from the extremist/overclocking crowd with every board release

all these boards suck


yeah 300 watts is never enough for an Athlon system anymore
it may run, but building a system with one is plain stupid
with the vid cards and power hungry cpu's out these days

 

[OverclockTHIS]

Unless you can prove otherwise, yes, you are still a moron...
Here's a proof that Asus motherboard has PCI locking capablities.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1800,

Here's my proof...now take your dumb sorry ass and bother someone else.

Originally posted by: Parja

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Well if you weren't such an utter moron and actually read - straight from the review.

"For this question we headed over to ASUS and asked them what was going on. ASUS's response was simply that they have a PCI bus lock set at 33MHz and that you have nothing to worry about as far as running your devices out of specification while performing FSB overclocking."

So I'm the utter moron for blindly believing a statement from some nimrod marketing puke at ASUS when the evidence clearly shows that the board is not capable of hitting anything close to 200MHz. Uhh yeah, ok.

Also, Evan noted in the review that Abit and Chaintech both supposedly have PCI locks on their boards.

"We asked ABIT why the AGP lock was included in the NF7-S BIOS but not the PCI lock, and we were basically told that the only reason you don't see a PCI lock in the BIOS is because ABIT doesn't want users fooling around with PCI frequency, especially since it offers virtually no performance gain. We don't have any way of independently verifying ABIT's PCI lock claim ourselves, so take this piece of information as you will."

"Even though there's definitely an AGP lock in the 7NJS BIOS, there isn't any visible PCI lock. According to Chaintech though, the 7NJS does indeed lock the PCI bus at 33MHz, there just isn't an option in the BIOS to tinker with it. We have no way of independently verifying this ourselves, so take it for what it's worth."

So, ya know, before you call someone a moron, maybe you should prove your own intelligence by thinking a little bit before you post.

 

[caboob]

from people ive read about in other forums, peeps are able to run at 200Mhz but apparently with Evans stringent stability tests, the CPU used is apparently limited to some extent. I would think testing with an XP2800 would determine whether this board is stable at those frequencies. Its a little disconcerting though that there are reports (rumor?) of a new board revision being released.

 

[NicColt]

>How are people planning to run 200mhz Bartons without PCI locks?

I don't know what your so uptight about, mobo manufacturers are in the business of supporting what out there now. When the Barton is officially released I'm sure that BIOS's will follow.

"At the same keynote they (nVidia) had nForce2 motherboards running with a 400MHz FSB. We just received confirmation (although AMD won't announce it until much later) that Barton will be shipping with a 400MHz FSB and the performance boost from the new FSB is pretty healthy. On current processors the use of a 400MHz FSB will improve performance anywhere from 0 - 15% on the nForce2 platform, obviously depending on the benchmark" Link

According to this I quite sure they were running Barton's on nForce2 boards. I believe that at comdex nvidia said they all nforce2 boards will support bartons.

 

[Palek]

OverclockTHIS, watch your language, please. If you cannot discuss issues intelligently, then maybe you should just stick with Off-Topic.

Abrasion, I am not aware of any issues with Abit boards even though I have been trying to keep up to date with hardware news. What bad things have you heard about them, exactly? Oh, hold on, was it the leaking capacitors? That is all I can recall, and if I remember correctly, the leaks did not produce any instabilities in most reported cases. But, then, I don't know everything, and I have a terrible memory .

I was quite disappointed to find no sound quality tests in the review, but I am sure it would have required a lot more effort and time. I am sure, though, that many people are interested in the nForce2 partly for its potential audio capabilities. Maybe in another review, huh?

 

[kadajawi]

well, yeah, a sound quality test would definately be great, but I don't think it would be the right thing to do for AnandTech (unless they expand to the sound sector with all needed equipment and new autors with experience in these sort of reviews (a golden ear, knowing how to test etc. ). But digit-life's sound reviews seem to be pretty good, and as they have reviewed the nForce 2 boards (haven't they) they might seperately test the sound quality...

 

[Parja]

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Unless you can prove otherwise, yes, you are still a moron...
Here's a proof that Asus motherboard has PCI locking capablities.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1800,

Here's my proof...now take your dumb sorry ass and bother someone else.

Cripes, man! Can't you just discuss something rationally? Now, just for a sec, try to not be a raging ASUS fanboy and think about this rationally.

As I already said, Abit and Chiaintech both claim to have PCI locks on their mobos. EpoX may also, but they haven't responded yet. Either way, it's obviously not a limitation of the BIOS to include a PCI lock. Therefore, I'm sure all of the mobo manufacturers will include a PCI lock as a feature in upcoming BIOSes to support the 200MHz FSB.

What I find more disturbing is that even though ASUS has a PCI lock on their mobo, it still wasn't stable at anywhere near that FSB by Evan's standards.

 

[kentarou]

I just recently picked up an A7N8X along with a stick of Corsair 512MB XMS3500C2. Will I have a problem running this as the only memory dimm on the motherboard in dimm slot 3?

 

[dejacky]

Is there a board more stable than my ECS K7S5A? i.e. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe? Someone mentioned a while back that the NForce2 series used higher quality capacitors and components compared to ECS. Will upgrading to the Nforce deal give me a more stable computer?

-dejacky

 

[BuckNaked]

Evan,
First I would like to say that I enjoyed your NForce2 roundup, I have been looking forward to it ever since you posted that you would be reviewing several boards....

I would like to ask you a couple of questions though.... over at a website called houseofhelp.com, they have an official corsair memory support forum, (link), there is quite a bit of discussion going on about compatability issues with the ASUS A7N8X and corsair DDR3200 CAS 2 and DDR3500 CAS 2 modules. Looks like it has been acknowledged as a problem by Corsair... Did you encounter this in your testing? whether or not you encountered it, do you think it warrants mentioning to possible purchasers until the issue is resolved...? I only ran across it by chance, and hadn't seen much mention of it anywhere until I did run across it in the forums...

Also, there is quite a bit of talk of Barton being released with a 400FSB... Any idea how much confirmation there is to this, and will current revisions of the NForce2 boards offer official support through Bios upgrades when and if they become available? Thanks!

Dave

 

[Palek]

Well, I went parts-shopping today, and while I did not actually buy anything in the end, I did have a good look at all the available nForce2 boards. Interestingly enough, the Abit NF7-S did NOT have the promised mounting holes around the CPU socket. Nevertheless, it still looks like a great board, and maybe later revisions WILL have those holes. I liked the Epox as well, but 4 ATA devices max is just a little limited, and once you add a SATA or ATA RAID controller, you basically have the NF7-S for more money. How much sense would that make? (I know, I am trying very hard to convince myself )

 

[StilettoOne]

Originally posted by: Parja

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Well if you weren't such an utter moron and actually read - straight from the review.

"For this question we headed over to ASUS and asked them what was going on. ASUS's response was simply that they have a PCI bus lock set at 33MHz and that you have nothing to worry about as far as running your devices out of specification while performing FSB overclocking."

So I'm the utter moron for blindly believing a statement from some nimrod marketing puke at ASUS when the evidence clearly shows that the board is not capable of hitting anything close to 200MHz. Uhh yeah, ok.

Also, Evan noted in the review that Abit and Chaintech both supposedly have PCI locks on their boards.

"We asked ABIT why the AGP lock was included in the NF7-S BIOS but not the PCI lock, and we were basically told that the only reason you don't see a PCI lock in the BIOS is because ABIT doesn't want users fooling around with PCI frequency, especially since it offers virtually no performance gain. We don't have any way of independently verifying ABIT's PCI lock claim ourselves, so take this piece of information as you will."

"Even though there's definitely an AGP lock in the 7NJS BIOS, there isn't any visible PCI lock. According to Chaintech though, the 7NJS does indeed lock the PCI bus at 33MHz, there just isn't an option in the BIOS to tinker with it. We have no way of independently verifying this ourselves, so take it for what it's worth."

So, ya know, before you call someone a moron, maybe you should prove your own intelligence by thinking a little bit before you post.

Am I the online one here who noticed that Lieb didn't overvolt?

(Geez...read the freaking review, people!)

You're not going to get a high overclock at stock voltages.

And you know what? I've seen A7N8X-based comps running at 204 FSB. So don't start about how it "can't" hit 200 FSB.

 

[Mangler]

Palek

I started a thread of the Abit NF7-S
The thread is here

And to your statement about the holes around the ZIF.... It WILL have them.

 

[Pjotr]

So if the AMD Barton Core is released as a 400MHz DDR part, this series of Nforce2 boards are'nt going to cut it then? Is there at least confirmation of a 333MHz DDR Barton Core? Or perhaps some bios tweaking yet to be done to bring us into the realm of a stable 400MHz DDR with this current crop of Nforce2.

1) ASUS A7N8X is approved for 333 MHz FSB and 400 MHz RAM

2) AMD has confirmed Barton launches with 333 MHz FSB

3) AMD has never confirmed there will be any 400 MHz FSB Athlon CPUs

4) Some journalists have been told at Comdex by AMD emplyees that there will be 400 MHz FSB Athlons next year

Remember that 4) was heard right after Intel said they would do 800 MHz FSB, so take the AMD statement with a grain of salt.

Do not expect motherboards being launched today to be certified for something that we hasn't even been announced, especially since we don't even know for sure if it will be announced.

 

[gsan]

Does EPoX 8RDA+ sopports PCI bus locking? And when a 166MHz FSB Athlon overclocked to 200MHz FSB, is that the PCI still running at 33MHz ? THanks.

 

[OverclockTHIS]

I agree...A7N8X is not a motherboard - its a work of art. Atleast through AMD's eyes.

Originally posted by: StilettoOne

Originally posted by: Parja

Am I the online one here who noticed that Lieb didn't overvolt?

(Geez...read the freaking review, people!)

You're not going to get a high overclock at stock voltages.

And you know what? I've seen A7N8X-based comps running at 204 FSB. So don't start about how it "can't" hit 200 FSB.

 

[OverclockTHIS]

Yet another person who doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

200mhz Barton official news was RELEASED by Anandtech...you are gonna call Mr. Shimpi a liar now?

Originally posted by: Pjotr

So if the AMD Barton Core is released as a 400MHz DDR part, this series
of Nforce2 boards are'nt going to cut it then? Is there at least confirmation of a 333MHz DDR Barton Core? Or perhaps some bios tweaking yet to be done to bring us into the realm of a stable 400MHz DDR with this current crop of Nforce2.

1) ASUS A7N8X is approved for 333 MHz FSB and 400 MHz RAM

2) AMD has confirmed Barton launches with 333 MHz FSB

3) AMD has never confirmed there will be any 400 MHz FSB Athlon CPUs

4) Some journalists have been told at Comdex by AMD emplyees that there will be 400 MHz FSB Athlons next year

Remember that 4) was heard right after Intel said they would do 800 MHz FSB, so take the AMD statement with a grain of salt.

Do not expect motherboards being launched today to be certified for something that we hasn't even been announced, especially since we don't even know for sure if it will be announced.

 

[NicColt]

>Yet another person who doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
>200mhz Barton official news was RELEASED by Anandtech...

Who give a crap at this point in the game. I can't find the link but nVidia mentioned at comdex that ALL nforce2 mobos with support a 400 FSB cpu and a simple bios will lock the pci clock at half the AGP. Dude give it up already.

 

[gsan]

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Unless you can prove otherwise, yes, you are still a moron...
Here's a proof that Asus motherboard has PCI locking capablities.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1800,

Here's my proof...now take your dumb sorry ass and bother someone else.

Originally posted by: Parja

Originally posted by: OverclockTHIS
Well if you weren't such an utter moron and actually read - straight from the review.

"For this question we headed over to ASUS and asked them what was going on. ASUS's response was simply that they have a PCI bus lock set at 33MHz and that you have nothing to worry about as far as running your devices out of specification while performing FSB overclocking."

So I'm the utter moron for blindly believing a statement from some nimrod marketing puke at ASUS when the evidence clearly shows that the board is not capable of hitting anything close to 200MHz. Uhh yeah, ok.

Also, Evan noted in the review that Abit and Chaintech both supposedly have PCI locks on their boards.

"We asked ABIT why the AGP lock was included in the NF7-S BIOS but not the PCI lock, and we were basically told that the only reason you don't see a PCI lock in the BIOS is because ABIT doesn't want users fooling around with PCI frequency, especially since it offers virtually no performance gain. We don't have any way of independently verifying ABIT's PCI lock claim ourselves, so take this piece of information as you will."

"Even though there's definitely an AGP lock in the 7NJS BIOS, there isn't any visible PCI lock. According to Chaintech though, the 7NJS does indeed lock the PCI bus at 33MHz, there just isn't an option in the BIOS to tinker with it. We have no way of independently verifying this ourselves, so take it for what it's worth."

So, ya know, before you call someone a moron, maybe you should prove your own intelligence by thinking a little bit before you post.

Does EPoX 8RDA+ supports PCI bus locking? And when a 166MHz FSB Athlon overclocked to 200MHz FSB, is that the PCI still running at 33MHz ? Thanks.

 

[gsan]

Originally posted by: NicColt
>Yet another person who doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
>200mhz Barton official news was RELEASED by Anandtech...

Who give a crap at this point in the game. I can't find the link but nVidia mentioned at comdex that ALL nforce2 mobos with support a 400 FSB cpu and a simple bios will lock the pci clock at half the AGP. Dude give it up already.

Does EPoX 8RDA+ supports PCI bus locking? And when a 166MHz FSB Athlon overclocked to 200MHz FSB, is that the PCI still running at 33MHz ? Thanks.

 

[NicColt]

>Does EPoX 8RDA+ supports PCI bus locking?

Again there's lot's of talk that all nforce2 boards will lock the PCI at half the AGP, so yes and that's not counting on a future bios release when the Barton will be released. So all this talk right now is useless becasue all mobo companies will only support what has officially been released.

 

[Parja]

Originally posted by: StilettoOne
Am I the online one here who noticed that Lieb didn't overvolt?

(Geez...read the freaking review, people!)

You're not going to get a high overclock at stock voltages.

And you know what? I've seen A7N8X-based comps running at 204 FSB. So don't start about how it "can't" hit 200 FSB.

Well, since he dropped the multi to 8X, he never even approached overclocking the CPU.